Where were you on October 22, 1962?

If you aren’t old enough to remember, ask someone over 50. That day, when President Kennedy revealed in a national TV broadcast that there were missiles in Cuba, was life altering for many, especially in South Florida.

It was a day that inspired Miami native Charles Carter, who was 16, to skip school and go to the Army Recruiting Office. With his parents' consent, he successfully enlisted in the military and was assigned to one of the four, hastily built missile sites in the Everglades - a mere 90 miles from a potential nuclear threat.

Producer Rich Halten spoke to Carter and several other people who lived through that time, tapping their memories about the Cuban Missile Crisis,  as this week marks the 50-year anniversary. 

Archival audio is from the Lynn and Louis Wolfson II Florida Moving Image Archives.

We were also fortunate to gather tales and memories from members of the Public Insight Network to enhance the already incredible story Halten produced. You can listen to the radio story above, and you can read what contributors remembered and thought of those two horrifying and sleepless weeks below.

Two Sleepless Weeks 

10/24/12 - Topical Currents is with attorney Greg Lukianoff, who specializes in college campus free speech issues.  He’s written the book, UNLEARNING LIBERTY:  Campus Censorship & the End of American Debate.  He says “the road to censorship is always paved with good intentions.”  And for most people, free speech is extolled . . . until it crosses a personal border.